This file combination of images taken on October 13, 2009 shows an airport staff member (L) demonstrating a full body scan at Manchester Airport in Manchester, north-west England, and a computer screen showing the results of a full body scan (R).

A Finnish Civil Aviation Administration (Finavia) official was quoted as saying by Väli-Suomen sanomalehdet, a syndicate of provincial dailies, on Sunday that security staff might be instructed to profile passengers on the basis of nationality and religion if Finland decided to introduce body scanning at airports.

Jyri Vikström, the head of security at Finavia, told the papers that profiling would be necessary because there was no time to scan every passenger.

Mr Vikström was further quoted as saying that behaviour at the airport would be the most important factor in the profiling.

He added that he did not see the profiling as an equality issue.

Finavia has trialled one of the controversial scanners that allow its operators to view passengers effectively without their clothes at Helsinki-Vantaa airport. The scanner is not being used at the moment.

Finavia underlined in a statement it had no guidelines saying people would be selected for scanning based on nationality or religion.

Profiling is subject to approval by the European Union.

STT
AFP - Lehtikuva - Paul Ellis